A day before Fort Smith leaders were scheduled to consider approval of a library tax-election petition, the library’s director pitched the proposal to the League of Women Voters.

“What it boils down to is this,” Fort Smith Public Library director Jennifer Goodson said Monday, “changing our community and charting a new future for our citizens through an expanded and enhanced Fort Smith Public Library.”

“We anticipate the citizens of Fort Smith will be behind this millage request,” library Board of Trustees president Robert Kelly said Monday. “We look forward to what’s ahead.”

The library has two major sources of revenue — a 6 percent share of the city’s portion of a 1 percent Sebastian County sales tax and a 1 mill tax on personal and real property. According to Goodson, a 2 mill hike will double the library’s $2.6 million annual budget. She explained motives behind the millage request Monday to the league.

“We already do a pretty good job of some things,” she said. “We would just take those things and we would do more, we would do better, we would do expanded, and we would do enhanced. For example, more books, more DVDs, more best-sellers, more audio books.”

Goodson also mentioned attracting more authors.

“We want to bring more and bigger-name authors to our community,” she said. “Our community needs to have a chance to interact with those folks and hear from them first-hand. That’s a part of this plan, as well.”

New services could include online student tutoring, job-hunting help, business resources, newspaper archives, streaming video, Redbox-style kiosks with books and DVDs and a revamped bookmobile.

“We need to make that bookmobile more kid-friendly,” Goodson said. “Put a colorful wrap on it, renovate the inside, call it the ‘Storybook Bus.’ We take it out to preschools, day cares and Head Starts. They just bring the kids onto the bus for fun with books and reading and learning, what we would call early literacy and kindergarten readiness.”

While traditional services like books remain “key parts of what we do,” Goodson said, the library saw an increase in digital download services of 33 percent last year. Plans for a portion of the increased funding include additional computers, classes, digital instruction and an overhaul of the library’s website.

“We are interested in checking out to people Kindles, iPads and laptops,” Goodson added.

Other wishes include larger special collections, faster wi-fi, increased hours for the genealogy department and an expanded home-delivery service.

The library estimates the average Fort Smith homeowner pays about $1.66 a month in property tax to support the library. If approved, the new millage rate would cost the average homeowner about $5 a month, or $60 a year.

Goodson added that the $35 annual fee for nonresident library cards may be re-evaluated if the millage is approved.

In 2002, voters rejected the library’s request for an additional 2 mills.